What is the number for today?

AFL Programming
1

I'm not exactly sure how to ask the question but when telling Amibroker that you want a calculation performed on Today's information, do you use the number 0 or the number 1 to mean today? Since -1 is yesterday I would assume 0 is today but this question has been bugging me.

Thank you

Tom

2

You don't say which interval you refer to.

But on EOD:

/// EOD example
///
today_condition = Cross(C,MA(C,50));
///
/// @link http://www.amibroker.com/guide/afl/ref.html
yesterday_condition = Ref(today_condition, -1);
///

So there is no number for today.

Today's close price on EOD data is

today_price = Close;

Yesterday's close price on EOD data is

yesterday_close = Ref(Close, -1);

Recommended reading
https://www.amibroker.com/guide/h_understandafl.html
(Also see 3rd table there besides of everything else)

If you refer to intraday data then today's close price is

today_close = TimeFrameGetPrice("C", inDaily, 0);

yesterday's close price on intraday data is

yesterday_close = TimeFrameGetPrice("C", inDaily, -1);

http://www.amibroker.com/guide/afl/timeframegetprice.html

(NOTE: take care of future leaks in backtesting if shift is zero)

1 Like
3

Technically you could use Ref() with zero offset but it is redundant and waste of keystrokes.

thisbar_close = Ref( Close, 0 ); // redundant, don't use

You don't really need to use Ref() at all:

thisbar_close = Close; // just that
1 Like
5

Thank you, this really helps.

Tom